All News articles – Page 5032
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News
Berlinale appoints new Kinderfilmfest director
Thomas Hailer has been appointed director of the Kinderfilmfest (children's film festival) of the Berlin International Film Festival. Long-time Kinderfilmfest collaborator Maryanne Redpath is deputy director.Together with the director of the section, an advisory selection committee will be responsible for the programme. Alongside Redpath, Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick will ...
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Cronenberg nets two awards at Sitges Int'l film festival
Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary (pictured) took home the best film award and David Cronenberg best director for Spider from the Fantastic Section of Spain's 35th annual Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia (Oct 3-13).Cronenberg was also the recipient of one of this year's two Time Machine ...
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Benigni's Pinocchio smashes Italian box office record
Roberto Benigni has smashed all previous box office records in Italy with his fairytale Pinocchio which earned a massive $6.9m (Euros 7,021,422) on its opening weekend, according to Cinetel which monitors 70% of the country's screens. With Cinetel monitoring only 627 of the 940 screens on which Pinocchio was released, ...
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Madame Sata wins Gold Hugo at Chicago
Karim Ainouzi's Madame Sata, a Brazilian/French co-production about real-life street fighter and transvestite Joao Francisco dos Santos in 1930s Rio, won the Gold Hugo at the 38th Chicago International Film Festival on Saturday night. Cited for its "multi-faceted image of an extraordinary era, an extraordinary milieu and an extraordinary character, ...
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Mexico's Diego Luna takes lead role in Dirty Dancing sequel
Diego Luna, who grabbed worldwide attention opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in Y Tu Mama Tambien, has landed the lead role in Havana Nights, the second instalment in a planned Dirty Dancing franchise which is being co-produced by Miramax Films and Artisan Pictures.Guy Ferland, whose credits include recent made-for-Showtime feature Bang ...
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Red Dragon stays put at number one in North America
Red Dragon scared off the combined might of five top ten new releases and the irrepressible charms of Sweet Home Alabama to hold on to top spot in its second week with a $17.6m bite that brings its cumulative score after ten days to $63.2m, according to studio estimates released ...
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Anglo-French film investment alliance takes shape
In a bid to stimulate co-production activity between the two countries, UK and French film support agencies The Film Council and the CNC are exploring ways of working together more closely.The two bodies have met several times this year to discuss increased co-operation. At the Dinard Festival of British film ...
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MIPCOM TV market ends on a cautiously positive note
Attendance was solid at this year's MIPCOM programmes market in Cannes, despite the current depression in the TV market which has put the squeeze on many players in the sector. Michael Weatherseed, director of the television division at MIPCOM and MIP-TV organiser Reed Midem, was upbeat at a market press ...
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Hungary's major international film festival kicks off
Following the success of The International Film Festival of Fine Arts in Szolnok, Hungary saw another event kick off yesterday: the Titanic Film Festival in Budapest. The tenth edition of Hungary's biggest international film festival will screen over fifty productions from twenty countries. The festival opened with a ...
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Scotland loses a studio but gains a film fund
After years of feasibility studies and grand designs, Scottish Enterprise has concluded that there is insufficient demand within the Scottish film industry to justify the construction of a large-scale film studio. Instead, the organisation intends to commit $1.6m (£1m) of public funding to a more modest $4.7m (£3m) studio ...
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TFM launches Full Frontal into French market
Launching into France's already crowded distribution market, the newly formed TFM - a joint venture between US mini-major Miramax and broadcaster TF1 - has cut its teeth with its first French release. Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal was sent out on 24 screens in the capital on October 2 to lukewarm ...
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Hoyts has a go at Swimming Upstream
Hoyts Distribution has acquired Australian rights to Swimming Upstream from Summit Entertainment. Although principally produced out of the US, the film was shot in Queensland last year and directed by expatriate Russell Mulcahy, and stars two of the country's most internationally acclaimed actors, Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis. Hoyts acquisition ...
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US regulator blocks EchoStar, DirecTV satellite merger
EchoStar Communications $16.2bn bid to acquire rival satellite television outfit DirecTV was dealt a potentially fatal blow yesterday when the US communications regulator moved to block the deal.The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to refer the deal to an administrative law judge for review - a process that could take ...
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Two Nordic majors gear up for market growth
Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri and Denmark's Nordisk Film have both announced new appointments as part of their ambitions to increase their activities in the Scandinavian market.Scandinavian major Svensk Filmindustri is expanding into international production and will further strengthen its Nordic presence within film and television. The company is presently involved in ...
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Vivendi Universal to lay off half of Paris HQ staff
Vivendi Universal is to slash staff at its Paris headquarters and other international offices in a bid to achieve savings of Euros140m in the coming year.In a statement, Vivendi said it planned to cut 152 positions out of 327 staff in its Paris headquarters. Management tasks will be concentrated in ...
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3DD, Lorber Media to sell classic AFT films package
British programmes sales company 3DD Entertainment has picked up a package of classic films that have been out of circulation for nearly a decade.The package consists of critically acclaimed films made under the American Film Theatre (AFT) banner between 1973-1976. Directed by cinema greats including Joseph Losey, Lindsay Anderson and ...
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Pinocchio's Italian screen count noses ahead
Massive demand from Italian exhibitors has led Italian distributor Medusa to widen its nationwide release of Pinocchio this Friday to an unprecedented 940 screens, up from the previously announced - and already record-breaking - 860 screens.Through a careful Euros2m marketing campaign, Medusa and the film's star and director, Roberto Benigni, ...
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Artificial Eye takes Dolls, Springtime for UK
Artificial Eye has picked UK rights to Takeshi Kitano's Dolls and Tian Zhuangzhuang's Springtime In A Small Town.The veteran UK independent distributor will open both titles in May next year. Dolls, which played at Venice and Toronto, will screen at November's London Film Festival.Artificial Eye's release schedule includes Bertrand Tavernier's ...
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Last Life wraps as Bohemian's first film
Last Life In The Universe, the latest pan-Asian co-production and first feature from start-up production outfit Bohemian Films, is set to wrap this week following a six-week shoot in Bangkok.Directed by Thailand's Pen-ek Ratanaruang, the film is a dark comedy about a suicidal Japanese librarian, living in Bangkok, who is ...
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MIPCOM buyers go in search of value for money deals
MIPCOM, the television programmes market in Cannes, is turning out to be more memorable for its publicity stunts than its high-profile deals. But behind the hoopla is a new-found emphasis on getting value for money.The opening night party was topped by a performance by dance troupe La Cirque Du Soleil, ...